L6 Group Persuasion

Study which demonstrates Informational Social influence (Coleman et al, 1958)

Conformity is higher for more ambiguous topics/ harder questions

Real-life example of ISI effect

People choose a political party to conform to for complex/ ambiguous socio-political problems

When is NSI increased?

Conformity increases when people depend on a group for rewards or will interact with that group in future

The effect of NSI over time

Can trigger gradual private change (aka internalisation over time) = change private attitudes in order to match behaviour

Factors effecting conformity…

1. Commitment to the group

2. Group unanimity

3. Group size

4. Desire for individuation

What did Moscovici et al find?

When confederates consistently reported slide was green when true answer was blue, almost a third of naive participants reported seeing at least one green slide = demonstrates importance of CONSISTENCY in minority influence

3 factors increasing minority influence:

1. Consistency

2. Early defections from the minority side = the first people to NOT conform trigger a cascade

3. Minority group is similar to the majority = e.g. if they already share some characteristics - e.g. left wing better persuade the left

What is the dual-process hypothesis of minority influence?

Majorities elicit conformity (system I = attitude maintenance) whilst minorities elicit conversion/innovation (system II = attitude conversion )

Why is MEDIA a powerful social influence?

There is a shared awareness that other people are also watching = shared attention effect = deeper processing (higher elaboration)

Issue with studying Media Influences

correlational - lack of directionality between which media is consumed and their worldviews

e.g. Politically motivated people are more likely to consume congruent political media than less motivated = reinforces worldview

Studies on the structural biases of media

Gerbner et al (1986) - found in TV, males outnumbered women 3 to 1 = warps reality

Films between 2007 and 2012 = only 25% of speaking roles are played by women

Also found that heavy viewers of TV have more prejudiced views on women and the prevalence of crime

How can media influences be more effective? - Study (Vallone et al, 1985)

Just exposing people to contrary information doesn’t simply convert them (due to naive realism)

Instead, it is more effective to role-play taking the other-side

4 reasons why peopl resist social influence:

Attitude Inoculation

Meta-knowledge

Reactance

Public Commitment

What is Attitude Innoculation?

when small attacks on our existing beliefs, engage our system I thinking in order to counteract a larger attack on our beliefs later (like a vaccination)

Knowledge and Meta-knowledge = Study (Wood et al, 1982)

those with high knowledge of environmental issues resisted attempt to shift attitude to anti-preservation message

Bolsters system II

Reactance Study (Pennebaker and Sanders, 1976)

Graffit in bathrooms reduced more when simply asked ‘please do not write on these walls’ rather than ‘under any circumstances’

Public commitment

Having to make a public statement of your commitment creates a resistance to changing those attitudes later on - if you have said it publicly you are less likely to backtrack